CURVES AROUND MIDNIGHT

The curves

Around

Midnight

Lead,

Eventually,

Inevitably,

Seductively

To the precipice

Of dawn, night

Falls away,

Reminded that

It has to descend

In some other time zone,

Some parallel life,

The closing quotation mark,

The final word

Spoken somewhere

Over the horizon.

Somewhere,

Through an open window, a radio

Continues pulsing

Music though

The child it comforts

Has lost the fight

With sleep.

The music plays,

Favorite songs

Go unheard,

Commercial jingles,

The announcer’s voice

Trills out another

Advertisement

Selling everything

To no one

Until the daylight

Trips the alarm,

Day has arrived

To invade the dream world:

Gone, that conversation

With that person

Impossible to reach;

Gone, that visit

To that corner

Of the world;

Back, now,

To life as we

Know it,

As we believe it,

Ready or not,

Here we are,

Bruised

From the fall

From grace,

But breathing--

Still breathing.